What's Your Language?

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Mets will stay patient before making moves, won't overpay for help

According to ESPN NY, despite the dire need for bullpen help, assistant GM John Ricco said the Mets have no intention of overpaying.

"We're watching every day the same thing people are," Ricco said. "But you also can't fool yourself into thinking that there's one guy that is going to be the be-all and end-all solution to all of our problems. You can fall into that trap and make some big mistakes. It's one of the good things about having an experienced guy like Sandy [Alderson]. He's been down this road before."

As for balancing the present versus the future, the Mets seem to be tilted toward the latter.

"It's not even every day; we're constantly weighing both those things and having a lot of discussion about it," Ricco said. "But, at the end of the day, it's not completely in our control. There's the [other] teams. And they see the same thing. They know that, 'OK, we have to make a deal now.' So they're going to try to hold somebody over a barrel. And then it comes down to, 'Do we feel it's close enough that we can make that move?' And so far we haven't hit on it."

Alderson said Tuesday he cannot foresee trading any prospect who could have an impact at the major league level in 2013 or 2014, which basically means the Mets are only willing to part with farmhands in Class A.

An extra wild-card team in each league has made trade acquisitions more difficult as well, Ricco added. Essentially, any team within five games of the wild card cannot justify dismantling. The few sellers are overly demanding, at least 12 days from the trade deadline.

"It's a pretty small universe of sellers," Ricco said. "So the sellers that are out there are kind of playing it as, 'Hey, we're going to be aggressive.' So on a couple of deals, or teams that we've been talking to, the price right now is higher. I think you've heard it from Sandy: He's aggressive. He's making phone calls. But there isn't anything right now that fits what we want to spend."